Interviews

Michael Doven: Photography’s Next “Rock Star”

Article written by Gray Levett for Nikon Owner Magazine

When Los Angeles-based celebrity photographer and artist Michael Doven sets out to create a shot, he doesn’t miss a beat. Whether he’s shooting a provocative advertisements for a half-million dollar watch for Robb Reports Magazine with model Helen Tucker in Malibu or photographing a cool, sexy and timeless ‘50s Jazz album CD cover (he directed the album’s music video simultaneously!) with legendary Jazz performers and artists Mark Isham and Kate Ceberano on the Santa Monica Pier at twilight, he takes it on with a passion, joy, and certainty that is a little unnerving. One gets the impression he is not even slightly ruffled with big production challenges. Whether shooting musicians, celebrities, CEOs, Blue Jeans advertisements, dancers, cityscapes or trees, he has the aura about him of somebody who is “on”. When you talk to Michael about any of these, his eyes light up like the flare on a shooting-star’s tail as he talks about the quality of light or his love of shooting fellow artists or something as esoteric as the “communication” of a particular shot. A consummate professional, Michael never flinches at the daunting task of producing, organizing, and directing an entire shoot, but rather emits a calm, ebullient, almost contagious enthusiasm that permeates the entire set in a true spirit of play.Michael admires the work of Annie Leibovitz, Herb Ritts, Greg Gorman, Patrick Demarchelier and Art Streiber. And he’s been on shots with every one of them. From Peter Lindberg to Howard Schatz, he’s watched and admired their work. He is just as excited about work of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, whose homes he’s visited in Big Sur, California. Michael loves black and white portraits and is fast-becoming known as “that guy who does the cool B & W’s.”

Michael is an artist. He is a Nikon Professional photographer. He is simultaneously a passionate student and fan of photography. So dedicated is he to the art of photography, he has added teaching to his repertoire.

I recently sat with Michael on his visit to London to learn some of his techniques and tools of shooting. He was more than happy to share these and his philosophy regarding photography as an art form and way of life. I learned of his planned shoots and projects in London and New York and I knew I was talking with an artist who is making a huge impact on the photographic community both now and most certainly over the coming years. What I found fascinating was his professional journey from films to film to digital.

Michael grew up in the mountains of Colorado. As an elite athlete, skier, mountaineer, kayaker, and triathlete, he soon found himself at the age of nineteen as a photo assistant to the world-class sports photographer John Kelly of Aspen, Colorado who was featured on the cover of American Photographer in 1981.

On these shoots, Michael quickly learned the joys of creating iconic images at sunrise and sunset on mountain tops and in deserts for covers of SKI, SKIING, OUTSIDE and many others. He was featured on all of these covers as the athlete/ model. But it was the other side of the lens that drew him.

Michael lived in New York for a few years, honing his instincts and eyes to the stark grays and blacks of the urban landscape. Shortly after in Los Angeles his photographic sensitivity was nurtured by the light, sun, and colors of California and the motion picture industry’s uncanny ability to capture and render these on film. Inspired, Michael went on to receive his degree from New York Institute of Photography. Today, he is shooting some of the biggest names in entertainment.

But there’s also a glitch in the Matrix. If you check with IMDb.com it seems that in the midst of this journey, Michael spent eighteen years in feature film production in Hollywood.

Starting as an assistant and working his way up to Associate Producer for well over a dozen movies, including feature films with directors Steven Spielberg, Sydney Pollack, Stanley Kubrick, Rob Reiner, Ron Howard, JJ Abrams, and Cameron Crowe, Michael had the incredible opportunity of working with and studying the legendary award-winning Directors of Photography Janusz Kaminski, John Toll, Dan Mindel, Mikael Solomon and Philippe Rousselot. Michael was able to watch and assimilate from these masters of light, composition an communication. What photography disciples would not benefit from (or kill for) this opportunity, privilege, viewpoint, and education? Michael has worked with and around such a large number of extremely successful world-class artists that there is no doubt he’s picked up a note or two of artistic value as well.

Which returns me to the “rock star” (or should I say photographer) in front of me and some questions I have for him.

Editor: It seems the more natural progression would be for a photographer to work his way up through stills then on to the film industry and yet you seem to have already somewhat conquered that industry and are now taking on this one.

Michael: Okay, I admit, you caught me and have now discovered my master plan to take over the universe through photography, having already had some success in features!

Editor: What have you learned in the movie industry that informs your photography?

Michael: I worked with amazing artists and individuals with vision and dedication to their craft and a generosity of spirit and have been very inspired by that privilege. The lengths we would go in order to communicate an idea in a film and improve a shot or scene were very far, expensive, and committed and often could take a year or more. Although we have much more limited resources in stills, I like to take steps to improve the overall communication.Editor: What were the most valuable lessons you learned as a photography student through your life?Michael: I read “It it Art?” an essay by L. Ron. Hubbard whereby he had worked out that Art in any form is a communication and requires contribution from the viewer to be art. Also, that any rule of composition or law or rule of photography is less important than the message or communication of the art. Some of my favorite pieces communicate while breaking every rule. Editor: Can you explain further? Michael: We are taught to compose with the rule of thirds and shoot with a tripod and expose properly, and not to shake the camera and shoot with the sun at our backs or fronts and the horizontal must be straight etc. and yet some of my favorite pieces- certainly my Dance series (from the soon to be published book Spirits at Play)- break every rule listed and yet completely communicate. Editor: Yet, you clearly are able to follow the traditional rules when you choose to as well. Michael: You are right. It is a conscious choice. I reviewed my work the other day and discovered not one of the shots in my work just happened. EVERY one of them was a result of a planned-out, preconceived, intentional shoot. I had an idea to go and create an image or discover an image and got up pre-dawn and went and worked it and worked it, moving and composing and learning. Editor: How important are your tools? Michael: The tools and understanding them are critical to the result and yet junior to the communication. A pro will create a “pro image” with a point and shoot or a Nikon D3. He will use the tool to the best of that tool’s ability. I have owned and been shooting with Nikons from the beginning and have a great sense of comfort with them. They are without a doubt one of the finest and toughest cameras on earth and I rely on them in extreme conditions and have never been let down. Editor: Regarding these exceptional dancer images, they have a spiritual nature to them and a photographic technique I have not seen; can you tell us how you did this? Michael: If I could set people free with photography, I would. I set out to see if I could capture the spirit or soul of a being when they are free. I set out to see if I could do this without stopping the action or motion; I want to create a great sense of motion and movement within the image. I worked with remarkable dancers and performers and went out at dawn and dusk and experimented with shutter speeds and lenses and light until I was able to ascertain the correct formula for the highest percentage shot. This turned out to be shooting ISO100 at approx. 1/15 of a second with wide angle lenses (18-55 mm) while running with and panning (moving the camera horizontally) with the dancer (and often zooming mid-shot as well for certain effects). I found if I moved in rhythm with the dancer’s movement while shooting, some extraordinary results ensued. I was most often unable to look through the camera while moving so swiftly so I would pre-set the focal distance (perhaps at 10 feet) and then seek to maintain that distance as we ran while also seeking to compose the shot by just feeling and sensing the correct angles of it all. I worked it and worked it until I saw the magic of the desired result and then I knew it would be a book someday and so continued to shoot this style for over a year. As a side note, every dancer, model, actress I shot with went completely free when the water touched their feet and got their clothes wet. They instantly became about five years old and laughed, danced, and squealed with sheer delight and this was the moment where my practice and planning paid off and my shutter clicked and his is the magic ingredient of this series- the playful free spirit.

Editor: Do you have any advice for others?

Michael: Yes, discover what you love and go and shoot it and create images and art with and around it and find ways to communicate your dream and vision and message with your art. It is very liberating.

Editor: For those not fortunate to learn from the best in the Hollywood film community, where should on go to learn this craft?

Michael: I have to say, here, that there is a remarkably concise and in-depth magazine called Writing with Light- Ron the Photographer, a pictorial biographical sketch of L. Ron Hubbard as a photographer. Most people know Mr. Hubbard as the founder of Dianetics and Scientology, but what many might not know is he was one of the iconic masters of photography- I would encourage anyone to take a look at this work, his eye to composition and balance, and most of all, how he literally paints with light in all his photographs. Amazing.

In addition, I would encourage one to attend seminars, workshops, and courses such as the New York Institute of Photography (www.nyip.com) as well as books and photography magazines such as Nikon Owner and others, not forgetting the internet. Do you know you can Google for photography tips for any given subject and get results that may contain gems! You may have to sort through the less important or false data, but correct pro tips are all over the internet as well, if you hunt and dig.

Grays of Westminster is the NIKON and photographic resource of the western world. It is the largest Nikon dealer in Europe.

Editor: Thank you for your kind words.

Michael: No, I am telling it straight. You have the most complete collection of Nikons and quantity of gear in the world, and I have never seen a $25,000 6 mm f/2.8 Fisheye-Nikkor lens with 222º view before walking into this shop! I now want to shoot with it! I don’t recall a friendlier staff or warmer welcome in any camera store in my entire life!

Editor: Are there any other resources you use that you would share with others?

Michael: Yes, Digital Fusion is the finest digital postproduction lab in the States and is in L.A. They provide every possible service to the pro photographer wherever he works in the world. They archive all your work, retouch, print, and have it all set up online so you can access and edit all of your work from anywhere in the world and send it to others as well. Many Pros use them (as does Fox TV and other studios). They are my not-so-secret weapon and do all my fine art prints and make me look like a “photo rock star!” (www.digitalfusion.com)

Editor: You have an extraordinary photo of Central Park shot in the autumn from a helicopter (with the door removed). I have never seen NY from this viewpoint.

Michael: Yes, very wide-angle fisheye and a Gyroscope to help stabilize the camera shake, I went out at sunset to do portraits of the city and found this angle that makes Central Park look like the center of the universe. The leaves were peaking and it creates a view that does turn heads. You can see amazing details in the image and many who have been to NY get a kick out of recognizing places they have been or seen within this magnified viewpoint.

Editor: Michael, will you join us again and share your knowledge and passion on other topics such as advertising, landscape, or celebrity in the future as well?

Michael: Count on it. Come along on some of my shoots.

We certainly will be revisiting Michael Doven. If you have any doubts about that or his trajectory, check out: www.michaeldoven.com

While I was interviewing Michael Doven, I came to the conclusion that he has, in fact, only barely begun the conquest of his photographic universe.